Owais Mughal and Umar Marwat

My firend Umar Marwat recently drove on Iqbal-Ufer in Heidelberg, Germany. He sends us following photos of signs and views along this road named after one of the greatest poets of the sub-continent, Allama Mohammad Iqbal.

Allama earned his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg in philosophy. Germans have paid tribute to him by naming a road after him.

Owais Mughal

On these pages at ATP, we’ve extensively covered Pakistani poets and poetry. One thing which I think has lagged so far is the Pakistani poetry for children. This post is an attempt to introduce one of most famous poets of Pakistan who has written extensively children. He is Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum.

My mother recently mailed me one of his books called ‘jhoolne’ for my son. For the past two nights I’ve been reading this book to my son at bed time and it has also taken me to a ride through memory lane, and hence the motivation to write this post.

The title poem to the right here is called ‘tar tar’. Sufi Tabassum is famous for using sound effects in his poems to get children’s attention. This poem uses sound (tar tar) of old cars (motor) as well as sound (cham cham) of a horse cart (tam tam). In 4 simple lines Sufi Tabassum has created this melodious masterpiece for children which is ‘hum-wazan’, rhyming and easy to remember.

Adil Najam

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry arrives in USA today for a speaking tour, including a visit to the Harvard Law School to receive their Medal of Freedom. One wonders if this is the last hurray for a dying cause or yet another reminder that this is a cause that refuses to die?

On the face of it, Asif Ali Zardari’s elected government has done what Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf’s military government could not. All but the most diehard have given up on the hope for the restoration of Justice Chaudhry. But is the “Justice Movement” also dead?

For Pakistan’s sake, one hopes not.